Table done! Mirror done!

Finally done, this table took way longer than expected. I find staining and clear coats always take so much longer than expected as I ended up putting on a coat, going away to let it dry and then not making it back till the next day. Even though a coat is about 20 minutes, trying to fit it in between the kitchen, baking, etc is never easy.

Here is the final product; sanded, 3 coats of stain, 2 coats of rub on poly and a left over drawer pull from the kitchen.

The new mirror frame is also complete. Same finish; 3 coats of stain and 2 of poly. To attach the wood frame to the mirror, I wanted to use PL construction adhesive cause it worked so well attaching the bathroom sink to the vanity and cause I had some left over. Well, it hardens really well, even in the unopened tube, so that was out. One emergency trip out later, I found a small tube of similar stuff and it worked great, expanding into a hard foam substance.

So here is the mirror, hung in our front entry.

And now we know: Finishing takes so long cause I take 5 days to do it and not consecutive days. Oil based products do work better; I will definitely stick with them.

The Kitchen: Putting It Back Together

The kitchen is done! ...or at least this part is until we replace the flooring. I put a final couple of coats of paint on the bottom doors, installed the new hardware and got them re-hung. I love how it turned out, very bright and airy.

Here is the before:

And the afters:

And now we know: paint and hardware are great, but the real change is getting rid of those curtains

The Kitchen: Painting Every Surface Possible

Tom is out of town for the weekend so I am forging ahead in the kitchen. Before he returns on Wednesday, I have to complete most of the work and have the kitchen back in working order. Friday before he left I did the final prep, which caused dust which caused him stress and grumpiness.

Here is the breakdown of events:

Friday night: after work I came home and started to sand. This was the messiest it would get; all the upper cabinets, the wall patching and the ceiling patching needed sanding. The kitchen was a cloud of white dust and although it was contained with drop cloths, my husband was still not pleased. After a thorough cleanup, Lauren came over to help, so we primed the uppers, patched the lowers and put a final layer of mud on the ceiling. I was getting a little stressed at this point that I wouldn’t be able to finish all the painting in the next 2 days.

Saturday: After seeing Tom off I gave a light sand to the ceiling patching and sanded the base cabinets. My mum came over to help me and we worked all day painting. After priming the upper doors, drywall patching and lower cabinets, we put 1^st coats on the ceiling, uppers, lowers, walls and upper doors. Lauren came over for a bit to help, but the greatest help was kittteh, who jumped onto a primed cabinet door and then ran off to hide leaving a trail of paw prints. She also spent a lot of time supervising from within the door less lower cabinets. By the end of the day we had reached our goal and were optimistic about finishing on time.

Sunday: Again my mum came to help and we got second coats on the uppers, lowers, walls and upper doors. Before she arrived I sanded and patched the lower doors and gave them a coat of primer. Kitteh seems to have an affinity for primer as I came back into the room to find another trail of little white paw prints. Her paws are now completed white!

Lauren was over again for a while to help out and put a couple of coats of dark grey on the doors. Upon my mum’s urging, I got out the melamine and we gave the trim a coat of paint. I hate painting trim and by this point the paint fumes and exhaustion were getting to us. This damn melamine paint got everywhere; we were dripping it on the floor, putting our hands in it and generally making a mess. We got most of it done and then abandoned for a shower before dinner.

.

The kitchen, although not completely done, is finished enough to be useable. Still to do: a couple of coats on the front of the lower doors, install hardware throughout and hang all the doors. Not too bad, hopefully my husband will agree!

As long as it is clean upon his return, I think he will be grudgingly happy.

And know we know: you may think your cabinets are white, but they are really a disgusting yellowish white and it is really worth the effort painting over them. Cats love primer.

The Kitchen: Prep Work

I’ve decided that my project for while Tom is in Miami is the kitchen. I can’t live with exposed ceiling drywall and holes in the wall for much longer, never mind the dented and scratched cabinet doors. Usually I do something to surprise him but this was too big a job and I had to start prepping before he left.

There was prep for the cabinets; filling wood, cracks and nail holes

Prep of the walls and ceiling; patching the drywall

Prep of the cabinet doors; filler and sanding

Picking new paint colours

Buying new hardware

And know we know: prep takes a while, but makes a major difference

The Table Progresses, The Mirror Frame Progresses

Well the damn mirror broke as I was trying to get the frame off. Sucks.

But the new frame is progressing well; I worked on sanding the pieces this weekend. I guess I need to buy a frameless round mirror…hopefully a cheap one is out there waiting to be found by me (although I am not the type to go to multiple stores, so likely a trip to Ikea will be in my near future)

The end table is assembled and ready to be sanded.

And know we know: it is not as easy as it looks to remove a frame from a mirror when it is glued in place.

Building a Table For My Parents: Part 2, Drawer Problems

First attempt at drawers: drawer slides: 1, me: 0. I was unsure of how tightly the box should fit inside the cavity, so assembled all of the table except the top and then measured with the slides in place for the drawer box. After attaching the slides to the box and cavity, the drawer was sliding really poorly, you had to really put some muscle into opening and closing it. Thinking it was too tight, I shaved 1/8” off each side, put the slides back on and tried again. It still didn’t run smoothly.

I did some research on the net, downloaded the CAD file for the slides and poked underneath various drawers in peoples houses. Finally after a lot of thought, I realized the piece of the slides attached to the inside of the table were on upside down and should be switched with the other side. I reversed them and the drawer runs perfectly.

And now we know: drawer slides should come with instructions, apparently it is not self-evident which way is up.

Building a Table For My Parents (& a Mirror Frame)

My mum has been hinting that she would like an end table for a narrow spot at the end of the sofa. After all the support my parents have given us in the past 2 years, I thought building her one would be a nice thank you surprise. Also it would be a good way to try building my first drawer!

The plans are simple to match the existing Teak mid-century furniture in the space:

At the same time I started cutting wood for a new mirror frame. I got a mirror for $5 at a garage sale, but the frame is broken and a little traditional for my taste.

The new design is a variation on a sunburst mirror, with radials of alternate thickness of wood; 1/2” and 1”.

And now we know: mirror frames are an easy project to sneak into the lineup as they require minimal amounts of wood. Also the cat wants to be in every photo taken in the house.